MANUAL OF CATTLE-EEEDIN-G. 57 



liva and the alkaline fluid secreted by the stomach itself. 

 What is dissolved here passes directly on through the 

 other divisions of the stomach, while the undissolved sub- 

 stances pass, a portion at a tinie, into the gullet^ and are 

 returned to the mouth to be tlioroughlj chewed and inixed 

 with saliva. 



From the opening of the gullet into the first stomach, a 

 passage called the <mqpko(/ean dmm-cmial leads by the 

 paunch and reticulum to the third stomach. This canal 

 may be described as a continuation of the gullet, having 

 a slit in its lower wall which forms an opening into the tirbt 

 and second stomachs. 



"When the food is swallowed the first time, its bulk seems 

 to open the slit in the canal so that it passes into these two 

 stomachs as already stated. 



When swallowed the second time, a poi-tion of it passes 

 thi'Ough tiiis slit back into the first and second stomachs, 

 but much of it goes on into the third stomach {mnsmum 

 or 9n€m!fokh\ d^ from \\hich it does not return again to the 

 mouth. 



The interior surface of this division of the stomach is 

 composed of numerous folds of mucous membrane, between 

 which the food is received and subjected to more or less 

 mechanical action, while the numerous capillary blood- 

 vessels which the folds contain take up whatever materials 

 are dissolved. 



From the omasum the food passes to the fora*tIi stomach, 

 dbommum or rennet^ e^ there to undergo the ordinary pro- 

 cesses of digestion in the same manner as in animals with 

 a simple stomach. 



So long as the young animal lives on milk alone, the 

 first thi-ee divisions of the stomach i-emain undeveloped, 

 and the food passes directly into the fourth; but as it 



